English-speaking delegates in the Rose Bowl and Spanish delegates in an adjoining ball park. They had come from all over the United States and many other countries, and for eight joy-filled days they feasted on the same spiritual provisions that their brothers around the world had enjoyed. How happy they were when 2,496 new ministers were baptized on Saturday morning! Their joy was increased the following day when many of their friends gathered with them for the public talk, swelling the attendance to 118,447!

Another great thrill for the conventioners was when Brother Knorr spent three and a half hours describing the tremendous success of each one of the completed assemblies. Jehovah’s blessing has resulted in a great crowd of people from all nations being gathered to His organization, he emphasized. Why, just during the seventy-one days of the Around-the-World Assembly, 16,267 new ministers were baptized and 570,932 persons assembled to hear the public talk!

Brother Knorr therefore urged his vast audience of dedicated Christians to assume their responsibility to care for the thousands of sheeplike persons Jehovah God was gathering to His organization. He encouraged them to imbibe the spirit of the missionaries, 805 of whom were able to be in attendance at the assemblies. After outlining future assembly plans, Brother Knorr concluded the Around-the-World Assembly with heartfelt admonition to stick to Jehovah’s organization.

Besides the cities tied in with the around-the-world tour, there were other assemblies, such as the one at Haifa, Israel, where 115 persons heard the public talk, and Nicosia, Cyprus, where 702 rejoiced in hearing “When God Is King over All the Earth.” The complete details of all the assemblies will be published soon in a 200-page convention report, with many pictures.

Yes, around the world, thousands of persons rejoiced over the benefits of the epic “Everlasting Good News” Assembly. For the around-the-world conventioners, it was marvelous to see how the New World society is expanding throughout the globe. A great number of people have gained access to God’s truth and are rejoicing in their being released from the bondage of Babylon the Great and can thereby make their lives happy, as they enjoy sharing in the “everlasting good news,” to Jehovah’s glory.

● Does Matthew 24:19apply to those inside the Christian congregation or to those outside the congregation?—E. N., United States.

Pregnant women and those with new babies would encounter hardship because of the difficult times foretold by Christ when he said at Matthew 24:19: “Woe to the pregnant women and those suckling a baby in those days!” True to his words, extreme adversity befell pregnant women and those suckling babies when Roman forces descended upon Jerusalem and dealt the Jews a crushing blow A.D. 70. Thousands of persons suffered and died. Famine prevailed, and it alone was terrible. Concerning the treatment then meted out by the seditious to their own fellow Jews, Josephus wrote:

“The old men, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women hid what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was there any commiseration shown either to the aged or to the infants, but they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morsels they had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor.”—Wars of the Jews, Book V, Chapter X, ¶3.